Capstone Green Energy Corp. announced this week its microturbine systems could safely perform on 30 percent hydrogen blended with natural gas.
The Van Nuys microturbine manufacturer conducted the tests on the C65 and C200 turbines with Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and the University of California – Irvine.
Don Ayers, vice president of technology at Capstone, said the company has continued to push the limits of its technology in preparation for global acceleration toward a hydrogen economy.
“There is a broad international initiative to decarbonize electricity generation through blending of natural gas with hydrogen in existing pipelines,” Ayers said in a statement. “These tests performed at Argonne and UCI show that our existing fleet of fielded power generation units, unmodified, can handle any of the blends currently being discussed for pipeline injection around the world.”
In addition to testing the 30 percent blend, researchers at Argonne have been operating a Capstone C65 microturbine on 100 percent hydrogen. The test results have been positive, according to a release from Capstone.
Muni Biruduganti, principal research engineer at Argonne, said that the recent experiments at the facility with pure hydrogen in a Capstone microturbine system showcases the operability and readiness of the technology.
“Hydrogen-fueled microturbines are one step closer to global prime-time use,” Biruduganti said in a statement.
The announcement was made on Tuesday. On Wednesday, shares of Capstone (CGRN) closed down 16 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $4.08 on the Nasdaq, on a day when that market closed down 1.2 percent.